1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote computer terminal operation system for operating a computer terminal from another computer terminal on a computer network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic conference systems have been developed and are gradually utilized for conferences in practice. An electronic conference system comprises a personal computer having a large projection monitor and computer terminals connected by a computer network such as a LAN. Electronic conference attendants can display their electronic document data on the large projection monitor and make their presentation and remarks with a pointing device such as a mouse via the computer network by operating the computer terminal, which has a large projection monitor, from each computer terminal.
An important issue of such an electronic conference system, in which a computer terminal can be operated from other computer terminals, is how to control and manage the authority of operating (hereinafter, referred to as xe2x80x9coperation authorityxe2x80x9d) the computer terminal with the projection monitor (hereinafter, referred to as xe2x80x9coperated terminalxe2x80x9d) from other computer terminals (hereinafter, referred to as xe2x80x9coperating terminalsxe2x80x9d), because operation commands from the operating terminals may compete on the operated terminal when the same level of operation authority has been assigned to these operating terminals at the same time. This can result in a situation where, for example, an attendant who is making presentation and remarks concerning an electronic document on the projection monitor may not use his electronic pointer smoothly.
To solve above-mentioned problem, a technology for switching the operating authority automatically is disclosed in Publication of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application xe2x80x9cTokkai Hei 6-282363xe2x80x9d. According to this technology, when a controller receives a request for assigning an operation authority from another terminal that is trying to operate the operated terminal, the controller can ask the operating terminal that has operation authority and is currently operating the operated terminal whether it is possible to return and pass on the operation authority. The controller can switch and pass the operation authority among operating terminals according to the priority of commands issued by the operating terminals.
However, according to this conventional technology, it is very inconvenient to operate such a system under the condition that only one operating terminal can operate the operated terminal at a time. Therefore, several attendants cannot operate the electronic documents displayed on the projection monitor at the same time. For example, several attendants cannot operate their mouse and point at the electronic documents by using the pointer of their mouse at the same time. This problem restricts the convenience of the electronic conference system.
Therefore, with the foregoing in mind, it is an object of the present invention to provide a computer terminal operation system that can appropriately control the assignment of the operation authority for operating one operated terminal from several operating terminals at the same time.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a computer terminal operation system that can control the passing and transitioning of the operation authority among operating terminals smoothly on the basis of the control of the assignment of the operation authority.
To achieve these objects, a computer terminal operation system of the present invention includes a plurality of terminals connected via a network, wherein an operated terminal can be operated by at least one operating terminal through an input device connected to the operating terminal; the operating terminal has a certain operation authority which corresponds to one of a plurality of operation authority levels that are layered in accordance with the functions that can be performed on the operated terminal; and the operating terminal operates the operated terminal according to its operation authority.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the operation authority is layered into a plurality of levels in accordance with the functions that can be performed on the operated terminal from operating terminal. That is to say, these possible functions can be classified into functions that can be performed by the plural operating terminals simultaneously and functions that cannot be performed smoothly when performed simultaneously. The terminal operation system of this invention achieves an appropriate assignment of the operation authority when plural operating terminals compete to obtain the operation authority by assigning the requested operation authority to the operating terminal having the highest priority and assigning the lower level operation authority to other operating terminals to permit the functions which can be performed simultaneously. There are various methods for layering the operation authority and determining the priority of the each terminal.
It is preferable that the operating terminal further comprises an operation authority selecting part for selecting one operation authority from the plurality of operation authority levels; an operation information generating part for generating the operation information required to operate the operated terminal based on the operation authority selected by the operation information authority selecting part; and an operation information transmitting part for transmitting the operation information generated by the operation information generating part to the operated terminal; and the operated terminal further comprises an operation information receiving part for receiving the operation information transmitted by the operation information transmitting part; and an operation performing part for performing the operation requested by the operating terminal on the operated terminal on the basis of the information received by the operation information receiving part.
This embodiment makes it possible to reduce the load of the system by reducing the information quantity on the network in order to transmit necessary information to the operated terminal based on the kind of the operation authority selected by the operating terminal.
It is also preferable that the operating terminal further comprises an operation authority assigned terminal determining part for determining one operating terminal from a plurality of operating terminals when the operation information receiving part receives the operation information based on the same kind of operation authority, the operation terminal by which an operation based on the operation authority is performed; and the operation performing part performs only a predetermined operation when an operation information is transmitted from a terminal that is not the operating terminal determined by the operation authority assigned terminal determining part as the operating terminal.
In this configuration, the operated terminal can omit the transmission of the result of the determination to other operating terminals after the operated terminal determines the operating terminal having the highest priority, specifically, it determines the operating terminal which is permitted to perform the function requested based on the operation authority.
It is also preferable that the predetermined operation is the operation of moving a pointer using a pointing device; and the operated terminal further comprises an multiple pointer displaying part for displaying a plurality of pointers on a display based on the operation information which indicates the operation of moving a pointer from a terminal that is not the operating terminal determined by the operation authority assigned terminal determining part as the operating terminal
For example, when the terminal operating system of the present invention is applied to an electronic conference system, pointer moving operation can be permitted to the attendants. The pointer moving operation will not disturb other attendants"" operation.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a terminal operation system includes a plurality of terminals connected via a network, wherein an operated terminal can be operated by an operating terminal through an input device connected to the operating terminal; the operating terminal has a certain operation authority which corresponds to one of a plurality of operation authority levels that are layered in accordance with the functions that can be performed on the operated terminal; and the operated terminal comprises an operation authority requesting terminal storage part for storing at least one operating terminal which tries to obtain the operation authority for operating the operated terminal in a predetermined period that starts when the operating terminal tries to obtain an operation authority in a certain level; and an operation authority assigned terminal determining part for determining after a predetermined period an operating terminal to which the operation authority is assigned out of the operation terminals stored during said predetermined period in the operation authority requesting terminal storage part.
When determining the operating terminal to which the operation authority should be assigned, it is not always necessary to assign the operation authority to the terminal which requests the assignment of the operation authority first. Specifically, the terminal operation system of the present invention provides functions for performing smooth operation authority transferring by storing at least one operating terminal which request the assignment of the operation authority within a certain period and by determining the operating terminal to which the operation authority is assigned in practice.
According to still another aspect of the present invention, a computer-readable recording medium storing a program is provided. The program provides functions for operating an operated terminal over a network by an operating terminal. The program comprises processes for realizing an operation authority request receiving step, where a request for an operation authority for operating an operated terminal on a network is received from an operating terminal which tries to operate the operated terminal; an operation authority requesting terminal storing step, where at least one operating terminal which tries to obtain the operating authority for operating the operated terminal within a predetermined period after receiving the request is stored; and an operation authority assignment terminal determining step, where an operating terminal is selected after said predetermined period from the at least one operating terminal stored during said operation authority requesting terminal storing step to be the operating terminal to which the operation authority is assigned.